Communication devices such as two-way FM radios usually comprise a radio housing, an internal speaker, and one or more electrical circuit boards located inside of the radio housing. The internal speaker is typically mechanically attached to the radio housing or to one of the circuit boards inside of the housing, using mechanical fasteners such as screws, rivets, etc. The radio's circuit board(s) are then electrically interconnected to the speaker using electrical connectors which connect to the speaker terminals. Typically, this is done by soldering wires from the speaker terminals to appropriate locations in the circuit boards.
One of the problems presented with an assembly approach as mentioned above is that the circuit boards, especially the audio sections of the circuit boards, can not be fully acoustically tested until the circuit boards are mounted onto the radio housing and the circuit boards are interconnected to the speaker. In the case where either the speaker or the audio circuits are determined not to be fully functional after the radio has been assembled, the radio has to be disassembled in order to correct the defect, wasting valuable manufacturing time.
One technique which is presently used to solve the above mentioned problem is to place the radio circuit board into a test assembly which has a built in speaker in order to test the audio circuits in the circuit board, while the speaker is tested separately in another testing process. This however, requires the use of at least two separate test stations adding testing expense and added testing time to the radio assembly. A need thus exists in the art for a speaker assembly which can provide for ease of assembly and disassembly of the speaker, and which can also hold the speaker in place during assembly and testing of the communication device without the use of mechanical fasteners.